Category Archives: Sports

Speaking of the Olympic Games in Rio.
I mentioned here once about the 1912 Olympics, and the interaction between the King of Sweden and American Gold Medal winner Jim Thorpe.

Jim Thorpe (a Native American) was born in Prague (Oklahoma not Czech, nor Bohemia), and became a versatile athlete. He famously told the King of Sweden who hung the gold medals around his neck and praised him as the greatest athlete in the world, allegedly “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world”.

Thorpe was reported to have answered: “Thanks, King“. Very likely what he said was: “Gee, thanks King“.

Suddenly the Caliphate of ISIS has disappeared from the headlines all across the United States. It is like some giant hand has pulled a giant switch toward “off” before the weekend. From cable TV to the major networks to printed media. Even online: the headlines are no more about ISIS or Kenji Goto. Even Benyamin Netanyahu and his not-very-diplomatic sleeper mole deep inside the U.S. Congress have been pushed back.Back in Mosul and Raqqa the pious Jihadi upper echelon huddle over maps and headlines trying to figure it out. What has sucked the air, media air, from the Caliphate? At least in America, Reagan’s city on a hill they dream of sacking, they are below the radar now. Abu Bakr al-Samarrai and his Wahhabi and Chechen and European aides point the finger at a small point on the map. A place they, and most other people on earth, have never heard of: Phoenix.What is this holy Super Bowl that now pre-occupies America? Is it like the funny little bowls their priests dip their fingers in during their Satanic rites? Is it like their other holy shopping seasons? Christmas? Black Friday? And who are these Seahawks and Patriots and Goodell? And what are New England and Seattle? What about Deflategate and Las Vegas odds? What about this new mantra I hear:”I’m just here so I won’t get fined, boss“? What do these strange words mean?One young man, a graduate of another faraway place called Tempe, whispers in the ear of the Caliph. He nods, strokes his beard, looks thoughtful and summarizes it:“I see. It is a temporary deliberate madness created by a powerful cabal called the N.F.L. They aim to get the people to spend more money buying things they would be embarrassed to wear for the rest of the year. To create the illusion of common interests and equality. And to divert attention away from the glories of the Caliphate. Let’s us wait until after Sunday. Meanwhile, we should all watch this Super Bowl tomorrow. I root for Seattle, WTF that be……..“.CheersMohammed Haider Ghuloum

Woke up early, too early today on this very cold first morning of 2015. Watched the Rose Parade in Pasadena (on TV from the Northwest of course). Getting ready to watch the Ducks beat the WTF they’re called in Florida State (maybe the Seminoles that they killed off?). One nice float had a Sikh motif, with a bunch of Sikh people on it. Sikhs of India, and maybe elsewhere, wear turbans, sort of like some of us Muslims. Sort of like the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.I switched quickly to Fox News, expecting one of their Five, or is it Six, geniuses complain about the Taliban or other Muslim terrorists taking over the Rose Parade.It has a ring to it if you are a regular watcher, occasionally with tragic results…………CheersMohammed Haider Ghuloum

“The men grappled with each other to board the quickly filling bus. Others wriggled in through the windows, scaling the outside, using the large wheels as footholds and leaving scuff-marks on the white exterior with their shoes. These weren’t refugees fleeing disaster. They were migrant workers in 2022 World Cup host Qatar, fighting to earn a few dollars. The job: Pretend to be a sports fan. Qataris boast they’re mad for sports. The ruling emir of the oil-and-gas rich Gulf nation is so fond of football he bought Paris Saint-Germain, now France’s powerhouse team………. Thirty Qatar riyals – equivalent to $8 – won’t buy a beer in the luxury waterside hotel in Doha, the capital, where Qatari movers-and-shakers unwind. But for this pittance, workers from Africa and Asia sprint under blinding sun in the Doha industrial zone where they’re housed and surround a still-moving bus like bees on honey……………..”

During the FIFA World Cup games in South Africa, there were many groups, including families, rooting for the North Korean team. Which seemed odd, given that individuals in North Korea are not allowed to do any private travel overseas. If they could afford it. Then came reports, some of them credible, that these were Chinese crowds, including families with children, hired by the ruling dynasty in Pyongyang to pretend to be North Koreans.

Now we come to Qatar, where temporary foreign laborers are more than 87% of the population of about 2 million. Most of them are from South and Southeast Asia. There are just not enough people in Qatar to fill any stadium, even if expatriate laborers were willing to pay for tickets. Which they are not because they can’t afford it and most are not interested in football/soccer. Hence this practice of hiring foreign spectators. The ruling family of Qatar will spend billions for the privilege of being the only Middle East country to host the FIFA World Cup games in this century. Until somebody offers bigger bribes to FIFA officials.

This item was eagerly highlighted by Saudi semi-official Alarabiya, but only in its English edition. Gulf GCC media are rarely critical of other Gulf GCC countries and regimes. Which means tat Saudi-Qatari differences and tensions have not vanished, they were just swept under the rug for now. of course the fact that Qatar beat Saudi Arabia to win the Gulf Cup last month may also have something to do with this.CheersMohammed Haider Ghuloum

“Qatar is among six bidders to host basketball’s World Cup in 2019 or 2023. The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) says China, Germany, the Philippines and Turkey also want to host one of the next two tournaments. FIBA says Germany may bid alone or with France. The FIBA ruling board will choose the 2019 host in June, and may pick the 2023 host from the remaining bidders………. Qatar will host football’s World Cup in 2022……………”

I wonder how much they are going to pay to get this basketball event? Are world basketball officials more or less greedy than FIFA soccer officials?

Saudi Arabia is in the throes of a profound theological controversy that evolves around sports. Saudi Prince AbulRahman Bin Musa’ed Al Saud is the president of local sports club Al Hilal (many if not all heads are princes because they can deliver the goodies and they like to lord it over lesser beings). The prince had asked his fans and supporters to pray and beseech Allah to grant his club victory in its coming soccer match against an Australian club.Enter Herr Doctor Shaikh Sa’ad Al Drayhim, apparently some senior cleric, who issued a fatwa that it is not ‘permitted’ or Halal or Kosher to seek divine intervention in soccer games. This has created the controversy. Apparently most Wahhabi clerics would permit seeking divine intervention, provided it is done within the legal Shri’a rules. Meaning? If it is done after getting permission of the Wahhabi clergy.

And these are the people Mr. Obama said he is proud to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with in Iraq and Syria. These are the people who seek to liberate Syria for democracy and freedom and modernity, preferably via a Caliphate.Cheers Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“Vice-Chief of the Salafi Dawa Yasser Borhamy has issued a religious edict, saying that Muslims are forbidden from watching football matches in the World Cup as it could be seen as admiring disbelievers. In his edict posted on Ana Salafi, the official website of the Salafi Dawa, Borhamy said, “the World Cup matches distract Muslims from performing their [religioius] duties. They include forbidden things that could break the fast in Ramadan as well as others fobidden in Islam like intolerance and wasting time. Football lovers like disbelievers of foreign teams’ players and others, which is rejected.” Borhamy also called on football lovers to focus on their religion and stay away from such forbidden things……………” FYI: he was kidding when he said that intolerance is forbidden (it is, but not for Salafis).

The shaggy Salafi leader was asked: “In that case what can we do in the evenings for fun instead?“.
He is reported by my eccentric reporter to have winked, cracked a lascivious smile, and replied: “If you need me to tell you about fun, then you are as hopeless as a Shi’a in Mosul“.

Then he added: “There is at least one other thing that is ‘funner’ than watching a bunch of other guys kicking a FIFA ball around“.Cheers
mhg

“Senior Fifa figures are for the first time seriously considering the ramifications of ordering a rerun of the vote for the right to stage the 2022 World Cup, in the aftermath of new corruption allegations against the hosts, Qatar.
While awaiting the results of a semi-independent inquiry into the 2018 and 2022 bidding races, senior football figures heading for the 2014 tournament in Brazil are understood to be considering their response if the report recommends a new vote in light of new claims based on hundreds of millions of leaked emails and documents. In Britain, there was a renewed outpouring of concern from politicians and former football executives after the Sunday Times alleged that Mohamed bin Hammam, a Qatari former Fifa executive committee member, paid $5m (£3m) in cash, gifts and legal fees to senior football officials ……………”

“The Qatari construction magnate Mohamed bin Hammam was in 2011 cast out from his gilded position at the commanding heights of world football’s governing body. His fall closely traces the arc of Fifa’s shattered reputation, and the melting credibility of his country’s 2022 World Cup project. Now the subject of the Sunday Times’s remarkably detailed allegations that he paid lavish bungs to Fifa officials while lobbying them to favour Qatar………………”

No doubt in my mind that millions in bribe money changed hands before the FIFA vote. But is that all new: from FIFA to the IOC to Formula One, among others? International sports bodies are rife with corruption and bribery, and they have been so long before Qatar became a household word in Paris. But as I always say: it takes at least two to tango.

There seems to be a trilateral alliance of interests seeking to wrest the FIFA World Cup games away from Qatar. In Britain, media and officials are reviving their old justifiable complaint about how the 2022 venue was chosen. The officials are still sore because London lost to Qatar (well, probably because of the bribes). Besides, British officials of the Cameron cabinet bend backward and forward to please the Saudi princes who are gloating over all this. Saudi media like Alarabiya are covering the controversy with relish, enjoying the embarrassment of their upstart Qatari rivals in the GCC. So is some Egyptian media, mindful of Qatari support of the 2011 revolt against Hosni Mubarak and its close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Other regional countries like Syria (where Qatari potentates support the rebel Jihadists) are also gloating.

So much for brotherly, or is it sisterly, Arab and GCC relations. The Qataris don’t seem to have many regional allies nowadays. The Saudis and their Bahrain stooges are hostile because Doha thwarts Saudi attempts at hegemony over GCC foreign policy (it is also partly brotherly and sisterly jealousy among the ruling potentates). They have lost the biggest prize, Egypt, to the Saudi princes and Abu Dhabi shaikhs who now have their man Al Sisi in power and call the shots in Cairo. They may lose whatever influence they have in Libya and Tunisia. They have also antagonized Iraq and Syria and Iran.

“The account of a 10-year-old daughter of a FIFA executive was pumped with $3.4 million, according to a report by The Telegraph on Friday, raising more questions over the finances of the officials who awarded Russia and Qatar the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. Antonia Wigand Teixeira, the daughter of the Brazilian representative of the FIFA executive committee, had reportedly received the money in 2011. Her father Ricardo, part of the committee which helped select the World Cup host nation………… A statement issued by lawyers acting for the Qatar bid said the payment from Mr. Rosell to Mr. Teixeira had nothing to do with the country’s bid for the 2022 World Cup…………”

Saudi semi-official Alarabiya network is headlining this one, which tells me Saudi-Qatari relations have not improved as much as recent reports claimed. GCC media yesterday headlined reports about healing the rift between the ruling potentates of the two countrie: these were apparently just wishful thinking by Saudi allies. Which tells me something else: even if they manage to patch the holes temporarily with chewing gum, the dam will leak and burst again.

Apparently corruption and international sports go closely together. From the Salt Lake City (Utah) Winter Olympics to the Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain to the FIFA World Cup games in Qatar (and maybe Russia and beyond). Then there were the selection of the leaders of Asian Sports Federations. The president of the Asian Football (Soccer) Confederation used to be a Qatari and is now a Bahraini shaikh named Salman Al Khalifa, of course. Now I wonder how many millions was paid by each country to corrupt Asian Confederation officials in order to secure the position to their potentate.

Silly me, I had thought these countries won such exalted positions on merit, even if they had never won championships. I suspect this has been going on for decades, but the scale has grown too heavy to be kept a secret. Before the era of petroleum oligarchs and petroleum potentates in the Middle East and other places maybe the amounts of money were small, too small to be decisive. Now, many millions can be spent on buying international sports decisions.

“Saudi Arabia has built the world’s first underwater mosque off a northwestern coast close to the Jordanian border, according to reports in an Arabic newspaper. The mosque was built by a group of private divers from Saudi Arabia, who used plastic pipes filled with sand under the sea off the coast in the north-western city of Tabuk, Almadina Arabic language daily reported. “One of our colleagues came up with this idea last summer and we decided to carry it out,” diver Hamadan bin Salim Al Masoudi told the Emirates 24/7 website. “We have just completed the construction of the mosque… when we put the final touches on it, it was time for afternoon prayers, so we performed group prayers in the firstunderwater mosque in history………………..”

My first inclination was that they wanted to convert Western scuba divers, before I remembered than non-Muslim scuba divers are frowned upon, especially inside a mosque. Yet, it would be interesting to see the King of Saudi Arabia and his princes diving toward the mosque on opening day. I bet they can sell tickets for that opening event and recoup the cost of the under-water mosque.

Or

maybe it is built for all these madrassas of fish that the Red Sea is famous for. I am not sure how the Wahhabi Salafi zealots feel about all this. These guys are obsessed with wtf the very early Muslims did: they pretend they would do exactly as these ancient gentlemen did, some even famously rumored to eschew the modern toothpaste in favor of scented toothpicks (miswak). I’d love for them to give up other infidel things the ancients never cottoned up to: like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.Speaking of miswak: I half expect the Wahhabis in my hometown may pass a law banning toothpaste, making it as illegal as pigskin (talking four-legged swine here, exclusively four-legged). There is no doubt that the very early Muslims (Sahaba and the others) had no interest in either toothpaste or scuba-diving, not even to get to a mosque. They even had a famous Arab verse around that time about a fear of dissolving in the sea (as in man being made of mud which dissolves in water).
We can chalk this one under “culture” category, I think. Or maybe “religion”. Or both.
(I think I shall soon post something Freudian about this mad race to “erect” the world’s tallest tower in Mecca or was it Dubai or was it Abu Dhabi………..) Cheers
mhg